Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > eyeTV w/iMac input requested/eyeTV reviews

eyeTV w/iMac input requested/eyeTV reviews
Thread Tools
jmelrose
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Orlando, Florida
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2005, 04:07 PM
 
I'm interested in getting eyeTV to make my just-shipped 20" 2.1 ghz iMac a TV/media center for my kitchen/desk area, and make it one-stop-shopping for my music, photos, and video.

I am planning to import all my CDs in Apple Loseless, and photos will take care of themselves, but the TV-input and EyeTV in particular is where I would be glad to get thers' input.

Has anyone used eyeTV? What did they think?

I have Comcast Digital Cable. I need a Motorola cable box in order to get the digital channels. Should I be using the digital eyeTV box? The HDTV? If I don't use the box, I can still get all the channels of basic cable. I don't get how these eyeTV boxes work, if I can use eyeTV to replace a box provided by my cable company... it seems like that shouldn't work.

Am I able to watch TV with eyeTV without recording it?

Any chance eyeTV can get plugged into Front Row as an option? Does eyeTV work with a remote?

Is there any turner/recorder software/hardware that might work better than eyeTV, in people's opinions?

Thanks for anyone's input on this.
JMelrose
“A man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” -Mark Twain

Current rig: 15" MBP i7 2.6Ghz 16GB RAM 1TB Flash Drive
     
jmelrose  (op)
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Orlando, Florida
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2005, 04:10 PM
 
By the way, here's some good news for you 500GB'ers who saw ship times jump 4-6 weeks when they upgraded the hard drive to 500GB:

My order placed: Oct 19, 2005 at 01:25 PM PST
IMACG5 20/2.1 G5/SD CTO
1GB 533 DDR2 SDRAM-2x512
500GB Serial ATA drive
SuperDrive
Kybd, Mighty Mse & Mac OS X
Country Kit

My order shipped on
Nov 12, 2005
2:56 PM Picked up SHANGHAI CN Package received after FedEx cutoff
2:56 PM Left origin SHANGHAI CN
1:02 PM Package data transmitted to FedEx

Yesterday when I checked it was still showing a ship date of Dec 5. This was a nice suprise to find in my email inbox this morning. So don't depair if that ship date looks to be waaaaaay out there.

This is a surprise Christmas gift to my partner and (less of a surprise for) myself. It's going to get an eyeTV so we can use it as a TV/Tivo, and every CD in the house is being ripped to iTunes in 256 AAC. We've got Airport Express connected to our Bose in-ceiling stereo system throughout the house, so now with the iMac and Front Row, this will be a great one-stop-shopping point for all our media. Throw in Roller Coaster Tycoon when it ships, and this will be a great mini-media center.

Sigh... Now I gotta keep it a secret until Christmas!
“A man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” -Mark Twain

Current rig: 15" MBP i7 2.6Ghz 16GB RAM 1TB Flash Drive
     
afterglow
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ireland
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2005, 08:05 PM
 
Well I've been using Eye TV in conjunction with the TV Mini from Miglia. It's a DTT receiver which is about the size of a shuffle and plugs into any usb2 port.

Amazing picture quality considering it's size. They supply EyeTV as the main recording tool and it works very well. I'm able to control it on the Powerbook using my Bluetooth phone (Sony Ericsson k750i) as a remote.
I'll be getting the 20" iMac so it will be duly stuck in the back and hopefully it will be a decent TV Tuner option for the Mac..probably won't interface with Front Row but with the iMac remote and my phone I have pretty much all bases covered.
     
jmelrose  (op)
Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Orlando, Florida
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2005, 09:58 PM
 
It looks to be a UK-only product. Is that the case?
“A man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” -Mark Twain

Current rig: 15" MBP i7 2.6Ghz 16GB RAM 1TB Flash Drive
     
Kevlar
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Ontario, Canada
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2005, 01:40 AM
 
My friend uses the Eyetv 200:

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv200

For TV recording you'd rather use firewire over USB unless you have alot of free processor time.
Intel iMac 1.8
Logitech Mx 7000
Firewave
Logitech z-5300 5.1
     
afterglow
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ireland
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2005, 09:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by jmelrose
It looks to be a UK-only product. Is that the case?
Well I'm using it in Ireland but wherever you can recieve digital terrestrial TV, you can probably use it. More info herehttp://www.dvb.org/.

Maybe a different hardware solution for your described setup.
     
Joe's iMac G4
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lemoyne, PA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2005, 05:03 PM
 
I suppose you are getting the EyeTV 500? It can receive QAM in the clear digital cable. Such channels are just the digital local OTA channels. At least, no antenna is needed.

The connection with Comcast is coaxial, not FireWire, on the 500 as well as the 200. You can watch and record or just watch unencrypted live HDTV or digital TV.

There are a lot of EyeTV 500 users at the Mac HTPC forum at avsforum.

The EyeTV 200, unlike the 500, will let you use s-video to record any channel. The EyeTV 500 recording of expanded basic and premium channels may be restricted by 5C copyright protection.

The EyeTV 500 is all digital, passing through widescreen HDTV. The EyeTV 200 digitizes analog in the 4x3 AR.

The 500 and the 200 are sold in the US. The 200 is also sold in Eurpoe.

Joe
     
pattop
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Nov 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 17, 2005, 07:36 AM
 
Have anyone tried Miglia's Evolution TV instead of EyeTV over the USB2.0 port, apparently it does DiVX and MPEG4 too?
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:55 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,